Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo is the highest-paid TV drama actress right now – and she thinks that revealing her $20 million salary was a positive step forward for women.

Talking to Jimmy Kimmel, Pompeo explained her stance that women need to get better at asking for "what a man would" – and added that she hopes talking publicly about her own battle for equal pay will help empower other women to do the same.

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"I'm grateful that it was received in the way in which I was intended to be, which is as an empowering story for women," Pompeo began.

"And to also be very honest about my faults, and my shortcomings because I think that there's a lot of blame, especially right now."

She continued: "People are blaming people and there's a lot of finger pointing but there's less people owning up to their side of things.

"And I wanted to sort of do a truthful interview and talk about my road to my own empowerment and how I got there, but also mistakes that I've made along the way."

The actress also added that she thinks women need to own that they have a part to play in securing equal pay, arguing that women need to "step up" rather than wait for it to be given to them.

"As women, it's not only about what's done to us, or what's not given to us, it's what don't we ask for?" she continued.

"And I think that as much as we can point the finger at other people, and say 'You don't give us' or 'You don't treat us fairly,' we also have to point the finger at ourselves and say, 'Did we ask? Did we step up and have the gumption to ask for what a man would?'

"We have to own our part of it, and sometimes we're too shy. We're too afraid to be seen as difficult, to really speak our mind, so I'm grateful for all of it."

Pompeo first opened up about her salary and the fight it took to secure it in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where she revealed that bosses used male co-star Patrick Dempsey as leverage against her and that Dempsey's decision to leave the show "was a defining moment, deal-wise".